Ratharsair (Raasay) 

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Ratharsair

What it’s like to live and work on the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay in summer 2021?

BBC ALBA HD

Ishbel Maclennan

Corcadal Productions

Ratharsair (Raasay) : Episode 1

Episode 1

Ratharsair (Raasay)

BBC ALBA - Ratharsair (Raasay), Episode 1

What it’s like to live and work on in the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay in summer 2021?

Cò ris a tha e coltach a bhi a’ fuireach air eilean eireachdail Ratharsair ann a 2021? What it’s like to live and work on in the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay in summer 2021?

Tha nas lugha na 200 neach a’ fuireach air eilean eireachdail Ratharsair, eilean caol fada eadar an t-eilean Sgitheanach agus a’ Chomraich. Tha na daoine a bha uair a’ fuireach air an eilean air an làrach fhèin fhàgail ann. Thug Calum MacLeòid bliadhnaichean mòra a’ togail an rathad as ainmeil ann a Ratharsair, rathad Chaluim, as deidh dhaibhsan a bh’ann an ùghdarras diultadh cuideachadh sam bi a thoirt do mhuinntir a chinn a tuath le bhi a’ dèanamh rathad gu na dachaighean aca.

Anns na bliadhnaichean mu dheireadh, tha cothroman cosnaidh ùr air nochdadh. Dh’fhosgail taigh-staile ann a 2017 a th’air cothrom a thoirt do dhaoine òga tilleadh air ais agus feadhainn eile a thighinn a dh’fhuireach dhan an eilean as ùr. Se àm dòchasach a th’ann do mhuinntir Ratharsair ach tha dùbhlain roimpe cuideachd.  Cò ris a tha e coltach a bhi a’ fuireach air an eilean ann a 2021?

Separated from Skye by the Sound of Raasay and from Applecross by the Inner Sound, Raasay is a similar size and shape to Manhattan island but with fewer than 200 residents. 

It’s an island where the past is all around - in abandoned villages, a wall built by a notorious landowner to keep islanders confined to the inhospitable northerly tip of the island, and where you can see the most famous route on the island, Calum’s Road, built by one man who took on the Herculean task of building a road to his village when calls for help from the authorities fell on deaf ears.

After a long period of young islanders having little choice but to leave to find work, the opening of a new distillery on the island has created much needed jobs, enabling young people to return and attracting newcomers to the island. There’s a feeling of optimism, yet challenges remain. What’s it like to live and work in Raasay in 2021?

In Gaelic with English subtitles

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